


all that remains

by acupoftea



Category: The Walking Dead & Related Fandoms, The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: (i also slightly abused the italics but ah well), Gen, Post Season 3, and spoilers for episode 5, major spoilers!!!, they're such a good brotp boi do i die, this is just a v short piece because i have a lot of emotions over clem & javier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-08 01:51:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11071548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acupoftea/pseuds/acupoftea
Summary: There’s something about the feeling of Javi’s eyes on her, that desperation. That hope. There’s something about it that’s too familiar, that takes her back to a smaller girl with a bigger heart, someone she doesn’t recognise anymore. AJ shifts in her arms. And Clementine wants to stay.(Major season 3 spoilers. A short one-shot about Clementine keeping her end of the deal after finding AJ and coming back (home) to Richmond.)





	all that remains

“So what do ya think? You think you might stick around for a bit longer this time?” Javier asks her, his smile hesitant and hopeful.

And Clementine wants to stay.

There’s something about the feeling of Javi’s eyes on her, that desperation. That hope.

There’s something about it that’s too familiar, that takes her back to a smaller girl with a bigger heart, someone she doesn’t recognise anymore.

AJ shifts in her arms. And Clementine wants to stay.

Another campfire, another step forward. Clementine knows how this plays out. 14 and Javier looks at her with hope and she doesn’t let it slip (not anymore-) but something inside her flickers. Remembers.

It’s too close to home (and that’s the whole _point_ ).

He can’t know what he’s offering (yet he must), because she’s seen this before. She’s been this before. And she doesn’t want it. But Clementine still wants to stay (and this is always the worst part).

A voice floats to her on the wind, a voice that says: _Be strong Clem-_

It shocks her. Where did _that_ come from? She hasn’t thought about that in the years. And with another, bigger, jolt in her heart, Clementine realises it doesn’t hurt anymore either.

She looks down at AJ. She knows what she’s living for. What she’d die for. Clementine feels Javi watching her watch AJ, nestled in her arms.

She hasn’t _felt_ like this in years.

She just trudged back into Richmond, heart in her mouth and cap still firmly on her head, and she realised she truly hadn’t expected it to still be standing. She hadn’t expected Javier to still be waiting.

They’d seen each other at the same time and his grin had been bright and brilliant (and a bit self-satisfied, that prick). It had tugged at her heart, it had pulled her, and she’d been helpless to do anything except smile back, just as wide. And it was _terrifying_.

She had opened her mouth to talk but before she spoke Javier had reached her in four strides and wrapped his arms around her, hard and tight.

“It’s good to see you Clem,” he said, and it was. Her hands gripped his t-shirt, and she clung onto him for longer than was probably necessary.

She hadn’t expected him to be alive.

When they let go, they both pretended not to notice the way the other wiped tears from their eyes. Javi held AJ and introduced himself for the first time, showed her around the new Richmond, Javi’s hair was longer and Clem hadn’t hesitated at all to call him out on it the first chance she got. He had shown her around the apartment he lived in now, and Gabe had blindsided her from the doorway, crashed into her with a hug as fierce as Javier’s ( _and it must run in the family_ ).

Gabe looked older, taller. He was still temperamental, but also kinder, in a way that Clem knew could only come from hanging around Javi all the time.

Javier tended to have that effect on people.

And then Javi showed her around the new courtyard. And he turned to her, with that look in his eyes, the helpless puppy-dog nice guy look ( _and some things never change_ ).

And now he’s asking Clementine to stay.

And all around Clementine are families. Noise and laughter and people, in every street. There are children older than AJ walking down the streets. It’s a cloudy day. There are blood stains here and there, smeared on concrete, if you look too close. Clementine doesn’t.

She had thought for so long that AJ was it. That all that mattered was his survival. And here was Javier, over and over again, offering her this. still giving her everything without even knowing it. A Chance at living. A safe place for AJ. For her. A Promise.

Maybe even a family.

Clementine opens her mouth. Closes it. And Javi is still waiting, even now.

Clementine came back. But that doesn’t mean she knows how to do this. How to stay still. She’d grown up fighting tooth and nail for everything she was, everything she had now. There had never been anything, _anyone_ , else. Not long enough for it to matter.

And Javi knows it. Instead of waiting for her reply any longer, he clears his throat, scratches the back of his head. And then reaches behind his back with one hand and pulls out a worn down, rusty old baseball bat. The _same one_. What an idiot.

But she’s still smiling.

“How about I keep my end of the deal first? Give you time to think.”

And Clementine realises she doesn’t need to think about it, not really. There’s a warmth that comes from the very core of her, the kind of feeling that Clem realises might be the thing she’s been fighting for her whole life.

For someone like Javi. Someone who stayed. And it’s the least she can do to return the favour.

She sets AJ down on the edge of the fountain, flicking Javi a wry grin.

“You’re on.”

**Author's Note:**

> so that ending KILLED me. i was hoping they'd put clem's story to rest, but for the first time ever we got a hopeful & heartfelt ending so i'm kind of okay with that (still though, clem's story is soon going to be hector's proverbial body as telltale drag it in circles around & around us just let her rest pls)
> 
> also javier & clem are the best brotp maybe to ever exist.


End file.
